1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to copier apparatus such as electrostatographic copiers and methods for using same, and more particularly, to copier apparatus and methods for making collated sets of reproductions.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
As noted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,408, it is well known in the prior art to provide convenience copiers with document feeders that present the individual document sheets to the copier, one-after another or seriatim, in a manner suitable for producing collated copies without a sorter.
In such apparatus, the original comprising a set of individual sheets, is automatically circulated for presentation to an optical exposure station, one sheet after another for copying.
More recently, an improvement in copying is provided by using electronic collated copiers such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,190. In such electronic copiers, image data is "read" by scanning an original with an electronic scanner so that optical image information on the original is converted to a stream of electronic video or image data. The video data may be stored in multi-page buffer memories. When a plurality of copy sets of a multi-page document are to be produced as a copy job, the stored video data for each page are repeatedly sent to the printer in proper page order such that the reproduction sets are automatically collated without use of a sorter.
A problem with apparatus of the above type is that a jam may occur in the feeding of one of the originals in a multisheet set of documents. In known copiers sensors are provided for detecting a jam and when detected the feeding of further sheets is stopped until the jam is cleared. Typically, upon detection of removal of the jam, the operator is advised by a display to place unscanned originals in the feeder in the original order and to press a start or copy commencement button to continue copying of the job. A further message may also be provided to press a stop/reset button to cancel the job and reset features that have been programmed into the copier for producing the now canceled job. The above problem is further compounded by the problem that the original that became jammed may be wrinkled either by the feeding apparatus or as a result of removal of the document sheet by the operator from its jammed position in the feeder. Placing this wrinkled document in its original position to secure scanning thereof could cause further attempts to feed this document to fail.
It is therefore an object of the invention to overcome the above problem and provide a copier with improved productivity in recovery from a jam condition.